Maria Grazia Chiuri - Designer, Creative Director of Christian Dior

[TerraVera]

I had to skim it.

That sales rep is prob a top performer. His ability to connect with her know her taste and style is how luxury sales should go….IMO this is more of an ad for the Bond St location because if I was shopping in Dior London I would want this sales rep. He dressed her so well and kept her looking very Dior. Maybe he worked at Balmain before and sold her the trench?

Why are there crocodile supposedly precious bags just strewn about like dinner mints.

in one of her previous videos (i watched another one to see what this lady was about) she highlights a balmain trench coat as her first trench coat purchase in london. so, the SA must've did his homework on her before she came in.

i still don't know who she is or why she moved to london or how long she's been in london because she said the driver's been with her for a year yet the move sounds really recent, as of this year. whatever.

anyways, it was an entertaining watch and confirmed for me dior hires good sales people. east coast state side, i've always had pleasant experiences with dior SAs. showing off store interiors and hospitality could be her niche, but it seems she'd rather be a luxury lifestyle & beauty girlie.

 

[Nimsay]

Yea that young lady needs friends in PR. She doesnt realize the way she looks….. i thought the same thing about the driver but being new to the city. It gave off a very specific image that I think she doesnt realize shes giving off…

 

[NakedAndAfraid]

Having a VIP Princess Party with a gay friend-lackey where you try on designer items is a tempting proposition for many young ladies I'm sure. I would like to see more of this type of experience based marketing from brands.

Everything looked really basic to me except the jewellery (I don't follow or know much about jewellery). Basic, but obviously working well for the target demographic.

I felt she expressed most genuine enthusiasm towards the jewellery as well. Hard to tell what's just for the camera though. Would like to know what she actually bought, or was gifted.

 

[Lola701]

Having a VIP Princess Party with a gay friend-lackey where you try on designer items is a tempting proposition for many young ladies I'm sure. I would like to see more of this type of experience based marketing from brands.

Everything looked really basic to me except the jewellery (I don't follow or know much about jewellery). Basic, but obviously working well for the target demographic.

I felt she expressed most genuine enthusiasm towards the jewellery as well. Hard to tell what's just for the camera though. Would like to know what she actually bought, or was gifted.

Victoire De Castellane is the genius behind the joaillerie at Dior.

 

[tourbillions]

Having a VIP Princess Party with a gay friend-lackey where you try on designer items is a tempting proposition

this screams new money/insta generation, people will do it one time just for the insta. For actual return clients I don't think they have the time to do all that. VIP people never have time to do anything and are always on the go. They wont have time to dress up in dior head to toe just to private shop. They are more likely to buy everything they like in store and try it on at home and return what they dont want or probably keep even if they dont want it.

 

[TianCouture]

Victoire De Castellane is the genius behind the joaillerie at Dior.

Since day one VdC vision for Dior joaillerie has been flawless. Tête de Mort, Milly Carnivora, Coffret de Victoire — all just exquisite, next level vision. She's not a fashion designer but I'd love to see what VdC would come up with...

 

[Kennnnn]

And all the variations of the crocodile Lady Dior bags are certainly not designed by MGC herself (but kudos to Galliano).

I believe the Lady Dior was released under (the late great) Gianfranco Ferre, who I think doesn't get enough credit for his work at Dior.

 

[Lola701]

Since day one VdC vision for Dior joaillerie has been flawless. Tête de Mort, Milly Carnivora, Coffret de Victoire — all just exquisite, next level vision. She's not a fashion designer but I'd love to see what VdC would come up with...

Yes, she is quite gifted. While her work for Chanel was fun (but not necessarily my style. I preferred Laetitia Crahay), it’s really her work in Joaillerie at Dior that I love. The first piece of Joaillerie I bought was a Diorette ring and I still remember the fabulous campaign with Catherine McNeil.

Her style is very Alaia dresses. But I wonder if as a designer of clothes, she would be able to take a distance between what she wears and what she could create.

I don’t know if Arnault hasn’t proposed to her to extend her activities though. At Hermes, for example, Pierre Hardy went from designing shoes to doing the Haute Joaillerie too (which is quite fabulous too I must say).

I believe the Lady Dior was released under (the late great) Gianfranco Ferre, who I think doesn't get enough credit for his work at Dior.

But I don’t think Ferre designed the then called « Chouchou » bag. When Sydney Toledano was asked to join Dior, he came from Lancel and his prerogative was to develop the leather goods. So the activities must have been separated at the time.
Ferre was doing good in Couture but his RTW never took off.
When Toledano became the president of Dior, him and John worked more closely. They pushed the Lady Dior in the early seasons but soon after John designed the Malice, they pushed more of John’s designs.
While it was still in stores, Dior really started to push the Lady Dior more post 2008 crisis.

 

[yslforever]

this screams new money/insta generation, people will do it one time just for the insta. For actual return clients I don't think they have the time to do all that. VIP people never have time to do anything and are always on the go. They wont have time to dress up in dior head to toe just to private shop. They are more likely to buy everything they like in store and try it on at home and return what they dont want or probably keep even if they dont want it.

Most of the people I know usually have stylists in apartment (or in department store) and go once a week or every two weeks, the stylist arrange several racks for their clients (in their sizes, needs, tastes and budget, even some very rich people hate to spend more than XXX on principles) and it's usually folded in a hour.
That's what I do.
I also usually also text the SAs in my contact, a couple of days in advance, with my events, needs and instructions, some photos, and they have my sizes in their files, so we can arrange pre-selected shopping (mostly fitting actually) in 45 minutes, I skip champagne and all that, that's for the people buying their once-of-their-lifetime bags and I understand that, but please spare me the falbalas ... spare me also the multiples boxes (even the Hermès ones) cause I hate all that unnecessary waste of paper, but I understand the need for other customers to have a complete luxurious experience.
Then they deliver in basic unmarked white vans...

 

[PDFSD]

Yes, she is quite gifted. While her work for Chanel was fun (but not necessarily my style. I preferred Laetitia Crahay), it’s really her work in Joaillerie at Dior that I love. The first piece of Joaillerie I bought was a Diorette ring and I still remember the fabulous campaign with Catherine McNeil.

Her style is very Alaia dresses. But I wonder if as a designer of clothes, she would be able to take a distance between what she wears and what she could create.

I don’t know if Arnault hasn’t proposed to her to extend her activities though. At Hermes, for example, Pierre Hardy went from designing shoes to doing the Haute Joaillerie too (which is quite fabulous too I must say).


But I don’t think Ferre designed the then called « Chouchou » bag. When Sydney Toledano was asked to join Dior, he came from Lancel and his prerogative was to develop the leather goods. So the activities must have been separated at the time.
Ferre was doing good in Couture but his RTW never took off.
When Toledano became the president of Dior, him and John worked more closely. They pushed the Lady Dior in the early seasons but soon after John designed the Malice, they pushed more of John’s designs.
While it was still in stores, Dior really started to push the Lady Dior more post 2008 crisis.

The 'Lady Dior' « Chouchou » It was designed in 1995 by italian in house designer Daniela Puppa , during Gianfranco Ferré's tenure.

on dior youtube channel MGC had a interview with her 2 years ago :

 

[TaylorBinque]

I actually quite like what Cordelia de Castellane been doing at Dior Maison and Dior Baby. Obviously the maison’s focus is tableware which is by far better than many fashion brands maison collections. The home decor are mostly variations of MGC Toile de Joy which, god forbid, I quite enjoy. 😂

Dior is very different because it has everything and beauty and perfume are also run by LVMH. The beauty products are great introduction for the fashion. It is very different. I have bought a lot of chanel, dior beauty and occasional LV, Gucci, Hermes beauty. Dior Beauty is as luxurious as it gets. It does great promotion, have spa and facial treatment, always packaged luxuriously. The experience of “buying” dior beauty is what “many” feel like buying luxury brands. The landscape has change so much and Dior is now a giant house, much like Chanel, people will keep buying Dior. But you need a strong vision to lead. Both mens and womens are completely disconnected, especially when they are at the same boutique. MGC, while she has been making hits, it’s obvious slowing down and she seems stuck on autopilot.

 

[LadyJunon]

I actually quite like what Cordelia de Castellane been doing at Dior Maison and Dior Baby. Obviously the maison’s focus is tableware which is by far better than many fashion brands maison collections. The home decor are mostly variations of MGC Toile de Joy which, god forbid, I quite enjoy. 😂

Dior is very different because it has everything and beauty and perfume are also run by LVMH. The beauty products are great introduction for the fashion. It is very different. I have bought a lot of chanel, dior beauty and occasional LV, Gucci, Hermes beauty. Dior Beauty is as luxurious as it gets. It does great promotion, have spa and facial treatment, always packaged luxuriously. The experience of “buying” dior beauty is what “many” feel like buying luxury brands. The landscape has change so much and Dior is now a giant house, much like Chanel, people will keep buying Dior. But you need a strong vision to lead. Both mens and womens are completely disconnected, especially when they are at the same boutique. MGC, while she has been making hits, it’s obvious slowing down and she seems stuck on autopilot.

I always feel like mega brands like Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermès would benefit from hiring a head artistic director who would lead the creative directors for each division. Just so that everything looks good when put together.

 

[TaylorBinque]

It does. As much as I loathe MGC, her signature Toile de Joy is much better than a wall of dior monogram. It really does bring the whole thing together.

 

[Creative]

yeah i surely hope nobody is under the impression that dior's unprecedented commercial success is attributable to *checks notes* maria grazia chiuri of valentino lmao

dior sells because it's dior - it's as simple as that. she really has nothing to do with it. the house will always eclipse the designer.

Tbh, this is not true. I hate MGC as a designer but she is a great business woman. I know her story at Dior very well and she’s been amazing business wise. Dior before her was a small business, now it’s huge.

Also, at the beginning she did have a lot of saying in the stores and in the VM. Huge influence actually. All the wood was used because of her. She chose the mannequins as well. Even the props. The store design before her was COMPLETELY different.

She’s been one of the very huge business successes of the last 10 years with Alessandro Michele for Gucci and Hedi for YSL and Céline.

 

[gallianostan]

Dior before her was a small business

 

[Creative]

You can think what you want, but it is like that. There’s no one that can talk about Dior in this forum with more credibility than me, of that you can be sure lol

 

[Lola701]

I always feel like mega brands like Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermès would benefit from hiring a head artistic director who would lead the creative directors for each division. Just so that everything looks good when put together.

While I agree on paper with that, I also think that strong personalities and visions benefits the brand.
Hermes already works in that way. Jean Louis Dumas was already the artistic director on top of being the CEO and Pierre Alexis Dumas followed as a creative director.
It worked because while the brand is rather classic, JLD wasn’t afraid of strong personalities and understood the value of creativity.
At Chanel, Karl was the creative director for the fashion part but Jacques Helleu for the rest. Both strong personalities but they worked for the interest of the house.

Apparently, they didn’t like each other but they have enough respect for each other to work for the best interest of the house. Anna Mouglalis was selected by Karl but managed to have Fragrance and Joaillerie campaigns beyond the fashion perimeter of Karl. When Vanessa lost her beauty contract with the brand, Karl brought her back…

I think about a brand like Gucci. When Tom left, they had creative directors for womenswear, menswear and accessories. At the time, it felt weird because it somehow diluted the fashion POV of the brand. But in retrospective, this is the perfect way to build a lifestyle brand and really build off the codes of a house.
In reality, a lot of designers aren’t creative directors in a way that Hedi, Tom or Nicolas are…

Tbh, this is not true. I hate MGC as a designer but she is a great business woman. I know her story at Dior very well and she’s been amazing business wise. Dior before her was a small business, now it’s huge.

Also, at the beginning she did have a lot of saying in the stores and in the VM. Huge influence actually. All the wood was used because of her. She chose the mannequins as well. Even the props. The store design before her was COMPLETELY different.

She’s been one of the very huge business successes of the last 10 years with Alessandro Michele for Gucci and Hedi for YSL and Céline.

I get what you are saying in terms of « small business ». It’s a question of scales really.
Dior became part of the 1 billion club only 10 years ago and while there was growth all along, her era is the one that had the most exponential growth.

It’s like Alessandro Michele. Tom did the foundation, Frida strengthen them and Alessandro boosted it. Gucci was almost 3 billions when Alessandro came. It was 9 when he left….

 

[gallianostan]

You can think what you want, but it is like that. There’s no one that can talk about Dior in this forum with more credibility than me, of that you can be sure lol

i doubt you have much credibility if you think dior before maria grazia chiuri was anything close to a "small business"

 

[Creative]

^^Exactly, @Lola701. These days there are very few brands under the 1Billion, and not so long ago Dior was kind of there. Now it’s literally top5, it was never like that five years ago.

 

[Creative]

i doubt you have much credibility if you think dior before maria grazia chiuri was anything close to a "small business

Dear, I’ve been working for these kind of companies for the last 10 years, if there’s something I know it’s how it works and what’s considered big and small in the fashion business.

Dior before MGC was small. Now it’s big, and it was just thanks to Pietro and thanks to MGC (mainly MGC).

It doesn’t matter how much you like Galliano, business wise it was tiny when he was there. Now Chanel competes with Dior business wise, which was never the case before.

I will never get this kind of designers fans. I love(d) Nicolas as much as the next person but his Balenciaga was small. Now it’s “big” (+1B). Being big doesn’t mean it’s good fashion wise, it just means it’s big. Lol. We are not 6, things are objective.